COMMITTAL TO MINISTRY

COMMITTAL TO MINISTRY
J. Alec Motyer

Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

The outcome of the saving work of God in Christ is the creation of the Church, and the present task of believers is to live in the good of church life, making it their business to keep that unity of the Spirit to which they have been called. This, in a very real sense, is a part of the ministry of all Christians. There is, however, another and a parallel aspect of Christian ministry which consists of testimony to a needy world. To pursue the former without this other would be to retreat into monasticism, and to ignore the importance of always seeking the balance of truth in the Scriptures. One Biblical truth must never detract from another, but must be held in balance. For instance, there are two illustrations of the Christian life which superficially might seem to be mutually exclusive: that of a sheep carefully tended by its shepherd and that of a soldier armed for battle. These are both essential truths and they are parallel. There must never be a moment in my experience when I am not, at one and the same time, resting in my Saviour's care and also fighting His battles. It is necessary to observe the balance of the Word of God, not treating any one aspect as the whole truth, for to do so would be to become distorted in outlook.

So we see that in addition to that inward aspect of ministry described in Ephesians 4, it is important also to consider the outward aspect which is stressed in 2 Corinthians 4, where we encounter the double thrust of God's Word as it affirms that our conversion commits us to testimony and commits us to conflict. 

The first eighteen verses of this chapter stress that the very fact of our belonging to God and to Jesus Christ, commits us to the out-going ministry in which we are called to share the good news with those who do not know it yet. We see by verse 1 that our conversion commits us to this ministry: "... we have this ministry, as we have received mercy ...". We have the ministry because we have the mercy. Every Christian rejoices to claim that the mercy of God has reached down to him and found him. Very well, then, if we are to be true to the Scripture, the man who has received the mercy has also received the ministry. It would be a denial of the plain truth of this verse and of very many more, if we laid claim to the mercy of God and yet stepped back from the ministry to which that mercy commits us.

THIS ministry is the duty of sinners. After all, mercy is the outreach of God to sinners. I remember very well that in my early days as a Christian I was afraid to open my mouth in testimony [33/34] of any sort whatsoever because I knew that my family would reply: 'Who are you to talk to us?' It often happens that our mouths are closed even from the simplest testimony because we know that the person to whom we speak may round on us because of our own failures; whereas the whole point of this ministry is that it belongs not to those who are free from faults but to those who are keenly aware of their need of divine mercy. Far from being abashed and silenced by the worlds challenge: 'Who are you to talk to us?', we should humbly agree that we are sinners and then proceed: 'Isn't that what I am trying to tell you about? A God who bothers with sinners like us. This is indeed good news, that there is mercy for such as us.'

You must not say: 'I am not able', for the mercy which has saved you will carry you through. God does not begin by showing you abundant mercy and then withdrawing it at the point where you want to serve Him. No, mercy never ceases. The ministry carries with it its own empowering -- "... even as we have received mercy, we faint not ...". One translation of the verb used here might be, 'We do not go back on the job'! Another way of putting it might be, 'We do not become like bad fruit', that is, not like the fruit which looks all right until the would-be purchaser examines it and finds it bad inside. 'We do not turn sour'. The God who places us in every situation where we are to minister, carries us through. We do not go back on the job.

It is our conversion which commits us to this ministry, and it does so in such a way as to take from us every excuse. Many can look back on the actual date of their conversion, some even on the hour of the day when it happened, and yet they may object that they have never been called to the ministry. You must be! Even as you received mercy, you received the ministry. If you insist that you have no ministry, then the Scriptures suggest that you have no real experience of mercy. There is a simplicity about this ministry of talking to others about the Lord Jesus. It means that you find your next-door neighbours in trouble and you share with them the fact that there is a God who answers prayer. It involves finding someone who needs a word of comfort and saying to them: 'Look, I can show you such a word in my Bible. Take it, and read it for yourself.' This ministry is not concerned with public preaching, but with the simple matter of sharing the knowledge of the Lord Jesus with others in the ordinary ways of life -- in the gangway of the supermarket, in the office, over the garden wall, in the house of sickness or bereavement. Do not be afraid if the world rounds on you with hard questions, but just reply: 'I'm sorry. I don't know the answer to that.' After all we are sinners saved by grace and not walking encyclopaedias. Let us tell what we do know of Him whom we have believed and whom we are trusting to keep us.





FROM verse 3 onwards we see that conversion not only commits us to ministry, but also involves us in conflict. Observe the honesty of the apostle Paul who makes no secret of the fact that his gospel is veiled. He does not present a success story, but rather a failure story. Far from giving a glorious account of thousands being converted, he brings before us a tale of the hardness of the task, and the fact that the gospel is presented but not received. This warns the Lord's disciples that they have got to be involved in the conflict of the gospel. Their discipleship does not lead to a pushover, an easy victory, but to a head-on collision with the powers of darkness which have entrapped and blinded the minds of men. This ministry, then, involves a face-to-face conflict with Satan.

We are provided with an explanation of the veiled gospel, which is that the god of this world, working on men who are perishing and focussing his efforts on their minds, plans to keep them blind to God. The result of this is that the mind of man, left to itself, is incapable of grasping saving truth. We are told what is the outward expression of such a blinded mind, namely unbelief. Men will not trust in Jesus for salvation. The Scripture also reveals the motivation of the powers of darkness, which is to prevent men from seeing the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Why does Satan blind men? Because of the intensity of his hatred of the Son of God. Oh, the plight of people without Christ! They are "perishing". The word denotes that they are 'destroyed from their original purpose'. They cease, in the best sense of the word, to be human. The original purpose of man included a destiny to share eternity with God, so that destruction of that original purpose means that instead they will go down into an adverse destiny which was never intended for man, a destiny reserved for the devil and his angels. It is not the Church; it is not even the [34/35] Father; it is Jesus Himself who will say: "Depart from me, ye cursed ..." (Matthew 25:41). What a tragedy that men should perish from not believing, just for want of a simple, heart reliance on Jesus. And what makes it so sad is that all over our country, in church after church, some complicated reasoning is being set before men and women, instead of the wonderfully simple gospel truth of the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The great need is for the simple faith which comes to Him saying: 'Lord Jesus, can I have You as my Saviour, because I believe that You have died in my place?' Can anything be simpler? For want of this faith men perish, because Satan has blinded their minds.

We are involved in a conflict with the devil. The Word of God leaves no question as to the reality of Satan's power and purpose. It speaks of him as "the god of this world", not because he is a god, but because he exercises a god-like and determinative force over the hearts and minds of men. He persists in doing this in so far as his great but limited power extends, making every effort to prevent men from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How are we to win this spiritual battle for men's souls? What instruments can we use in this terrible struggle? This passage not only warns us of the conflict, but it also shows us our armoury. "For we preach ... Christ Jesus the Lord: and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake". This is the answer. Preaching is the divinely appointed counter-action to the hold that Satan has upon the minds of men. It is only God who can open blind eyes; but He does so through the proclamation of the lordship of Christ.

THIS passage is full of the idea of the creation. God said: 'Let light shine in the darkness', and by proclamation of the gospel God can say: 'Let light shine into the darkened, blinded heart of men'. Satan cannot limit or nullify God's working, for all the immense power which brought the creation into being is pledged to bring the new creation into being. And this power operates through preaching. Not necessarily platform preaching. Not necessarily from a pulpit -- six feet above criticism! No, preaching means sharing our knowledge of Christ with others in whatever circumstances God has placed us. If we read Romans 10:17 backwards, it will suggest to us the sequence of how God works. There is the preaching of the Word of God; there is the hearing of it by others; and there is the resultant faith in their hearts. In other words, if we get on with our work of testifying about Jesus, God will get on with His miraculous task of opening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, creating in dead men's hearts the power to believe in Jesus. This brings us to our need for confidence in the complete sovereignty of God.

Our discipleship not only commits us to preaching the truth and to the conflict with Satan; it also commits us to whole-hearted reliance on God. "Seeing it is God who commanded ...". He is the Creator, and we can rely on Him and be sure that His action was and is a matter of free giving. Salvation comes by the will of God. Salvation accomplishes what only God can do. It is by His creative act that light can shine into a man's darkness. Indeed the whole idea of a Christian as a new creature involves a sovereign act of God as Creator. All man needs to do, all he can do, is to be a grateful recipient. James speaks of a Christian as "new born". Now it is clear that a new born baby is not consulted about his being: his life is a matter of decision by others. The Christian is also described as having been raised from the dead, and we know that what is dead neither contains life nor does it contain the capacity to produce life. If life is to come to the dead, it must come from outside. God must be the giver and man the recipient.

"In the face of Jesus Christ". This indicates that Jesus is to be made plain, we are not talking here of the character of Jesus, which is invisible, but of His face which is what can be seen. As we make plain to others what Jesus is like, as we focus their attention on Him, saying: 'Now do you see what He is like', God gets on with that sovereign work which is peculiarly and exclusively His, of bringing dead sinners to new life.

One final truth which emerges from this passage is that Satan is not angered when we talk about ourselves. What enrages him is when we preach Christ, especially when our words are the result of heart appreciation of our wonderful Lord. If we were to preach ourselves there would be no spiritual conflict; Satan would not bother us because he knows that there is no saving help for others in such talk. What makes him mad with hatred is when we accept our committal to go and testify, to share with others the light of God's love which streams into our hearts. This is what the fight is all about, and this is our ministry. [35/36] 


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